Ch'orti' interpreting and translation

Ch'orti' interpreting services

We first confirm whether the client is from Guatemala or Honduras. Guatemalan Ch'orti' speakers are more likely to use the language every day, whereas many Ch'orti' people in Honduras speak mainly Spanish and may prefer a Spanish interpreter. Either way, the client chooses the language in which they can speak most comfortably.

Remote interpreting is usually the most effective way to provide a Ch'orti' interpreter: video through the SILA Linguists® app or your platform, or telephone interpreting at any hour of any day. Asylum interviews, hearings and solicitor meetings are interpreted consecutively, and for nutrition and maternal health programmes we can arrange a female interpreter. Our interpreters take care with dates, place names and family relationships, which are often decisive in legal cases.

Ch'orti' translation and certified translation

Ch'orti' is written in Guatemala's official Mayan alphabet, with the apostrophe marking glottalised consonants and the glottal stop, as in the name Ch'orti' itself. Materials exist for bilingual education, and we translate health information, community notices and personal statements into and out of English, adding audio where it helps.

Civil documents from Guatemala and Honduras are issued in Spanish and translated from Spanish for certified use. Each certified translation includes a signed statement of accuracy, accepted by UK authorities such as courts, the Home Office and universities, and by employers.

Transcription, heritage and language analysis

Ch'orti' carries a rich cultural heritage connected with the wider Maya world, so recordings of the language are valued by researchers and museums. We transcribe interviews, narratives and evidence with time stamps and English translation, and add subtitles for documentary work. For asylum cases involving questions of origin, language analysis for the determination of origin (LADO) can be arranged.

Sectors we support in Ch'orti'

Our vetted, trained and qualified Ch'orti' linguists can support nutrition and health programmes, immigration and asylum services, courts and solicitors, universities, museums and cultural heritage organisations. One project team handles every assignment, and all linguists work under confidentiality agreements and UK GDPR. For clients from a small Chiquimula community, that discretion, combined with a linguist who genuinely knows Ch'orti', makes a difficult conversation far easier.